Throughout the 20th century, World War Two seemed to mark the real recognition of modern graffiti. “Kilroy was here” became a popular cultural American expression in the form of graffiti; it depicted a doodle of Kilroy peeking over a wall. Similarly, Australians adopted a nation the nation wide graffiti – “Foo was here”. “Mr. Chad” was another popular graffiti subject of the times, which portrayed a face with eyes and nose hanging over a wall saying “What No …. ?”. This referred to lack of commodities during the time of rationing. With the advent of airplane inventions, airplane graffiti followed including the ‘nose art’ that became popular during WWII. With the development of large cities and urban areas after the war, in the second half of the 20th century, gangs would mark public property and walls with their gang names, titles, and tages – this would mark the gang’s territory. By the end of the 20th century graffiti, or tagging, was no longer restricted to gangs, but spread to ‘artists’ who began to leave their tags in order to create a ‘name’ and reputation as a graffiti artist. The very first documented incident of illegal spray painted markings was found in Philadelphia. The artist responsible named himself ‘Cornbread’. Certain graffiti has local significance such as the tagging done by the Californian gangs the Bloods and the Crips. The graffiti name Cool “Disco" Dan appears in the Washington D.C. area; the artist creating the graffiti has been actively spraying his tag since 1984. Instead of becoming caught up in drugs and games during the Go Go scene of the 80’s, this artist devoted himself to graffiti. More information on Cool “Disco” Dan can be found in the book “Free Agents, a history of Washington, DC graffiti”. A joke put out by the Washington post is as follows: What two people’s help will Mayor Marion Barry need to clean up Washington, D.C.? The answer is Cool “Disco” Dan and God!
